Herein, related art may be discussed to put the invention in context. Related art labeled “prior art” is admitted prior art; related art not labeled “prior art” is not admitted prior art.
In data centers, computer systems are often reconfigured to expand capabilities or more effectively utilize existing resources. The performance, utilization, or other metric resulting from a proposed reconfiguration can be estimated by modeling the proposed reconfiguration and its operation. The model for the reconfiguration is typically reached by modifying a model of an actual configuration. However, the process of reconfiguring and evaluating models may extend over days, weeks, or months. In the meantime, some actual reconfigurations may have taken place, either due to an unplanned failure or some upgrade or modification that is not coordinated with the main reconfiguration planning processor. In that case, the reconfiguration process may have to be restarted from the new actual configuration. The present invention addresses this and other problems as is apparent from the description below with reference to the following drawings.